Educator's Guide (Grades 9-12) - Buffalo Museum of Science

Would you do it?
Thoughts about Plastination and your body
All specimens in Gunther von Hagens’
BODY WORLDS exhibits are authentic.
They belonged to people who declared
during their lifetime that their bodies
should be made available after their
deaths for the instruction of doctors and
the education of the public.
“BODY WORLDS is most of all a
collaboration between the donors and
myself, and all those who view the
exhibit,” von Hagens says. “All of
humanity owes the donors a great deal,
for without them, there would be no BODY
WORLDS.”
To ensure that donors make the decision
willingly, von Hagens’ Institute for
Plastination requires that all donors sign
an official consent form.
In the form, the donors must declare
that they have made the decision “freely
and voluntarily” to donate their body “for
the purpose of anatomical research and
education … for students and especially
for the general public.”
In addition, they must check off answers
to specific questions that have been raised
by Plastination so there is no doubt they
fully understand their decision.
“I agree for my body to be used for any
purposes, provided it is to do with medical
research or training” reads one example.
Or “I agree that my plastinated body can
be used for the medical enlightenment of
laypeople and, to this end, exhibited in
public (e.g. in a museum).”
Or “I agree that my body can be used for
an anatomical work of art.”
Or “I agree that lay people be allowed
to touch my plastinated body” in some
exhibits.
Donors to the Institute for Plastination
have the option to donate all useable
orgens to save lives before their bodies are
plastinated.
Cool Fact
Plastination takes a very
long time. A whole body
can take up to 1500 hours
to prepare.
Talk about it
As a class, discuss whether you would
want to have your body, or the body of
a relative, plastinated for education or
display. Then discuss whether you think it
is a good idea to exhibit plastinates for the
general public. To ease discussion, you
can set up a “For Chair” and an “Against
Chair” to sit in at the front of the room
when offering your opinion.
In your discussion:
• Consider what motivates a donor
to allow his/her body to be plastinated
for education or an exhibit.
• Consider how the friends and relatives
of a donor might feel.
• Imagine that a member of your
immediate family wanted to be
plastinated.
• Consider what you might learn—
or did learn—about your own body
from viewing the BODY WORLDS
exhibits.
Learn with BODY WORLDS
After holding the class discussion, summarize the
general feelings of the class in a news story of the
style found on the front page of a newspaper. Talk
about how newspaper reporters must weigh all
information before making a general conclusion.
Then compare summaries written by different
members of the class. How similar were they?
What were some differences? What was the source
of those differences?
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